


this will never be okay

by rarmaster



Category: Tales of Symphonia
Genre: Brothers, Gen, IT'S FINISHED, and it hurts me, this is the writing equivalent of a doodle but like
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-18
Updated: 2019-01-18
Packaged: 2019-10-12 06:04:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17462003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rarmaster/pseuds/rarmaster
Summary: It was bad enough, fighting on different sides of the war from his brother.But having to kill him?





	this will never be okay

“I have to kill him.” The realization hits Yuan, all of a sudden and all at once. It winds him, leaves him angry and breathless as a storm roars inside of his chest.

Kratos. He has to kill _Kratos._

Because Mithos is smart. How do you prevent the things you did to the world from being undone? You tie the power responsible up and seal it under the lifeforce of your best, most loyal friend.

(Kratos had offered. Yuan had stood there when he did, had encouraged it, thought it perfect because that way no one but them could get their hands on Origin, and the deed was done and didn’t need to be undone _but then_ —)

It was bad enough, fighting on different sides of the war from his brother.

But having to kill him?

“Yuan?” Botta asks, worried.

Yuan inhales, sharply, holds the breath in his chest as long as he can before he lets it out again, fingers curling into his own hair as he tries to grip this problem, grip it, strangle it, come to terms with it.

“I’m fine,” he says, and he exhales.

“ _Yuan_ ,” and there’s Botta’s concerned voiced, his concerned and I-don’t-believe-you-one-bit voice, and Yuan meets it with a bitter laugh.

“I have to be fine,” he explains, mouth curling with disgust and his heart still hammering under the weight of this. “There is no other way. Origin cannot be released without Kratos’ death. As loathe as I am to do it…”

“I could…” Botta offers, always looking to make Yuan’s load a little easier, but Yuan cuts him off with a firm shake of his head.

“No. Kratos would… well, he’d kill anyone that wasn’t me.” He breathes, as Kratos taught him to, to clear his burning mind and keep his thoughts level. The mere action fills his mouth with bile and his heart with sickness, but he cannot let grief stop him, not now.

It’s the only way.

He sends Botta a smile—a lie, but he’s good at lying—and says:

“It’s fine. It’s fine! It’s what he wants, anyway.” Maybe there is still bitterness in his voice. But how can he help it? Knowing the shell that remains of his brother can elicit nothing but. “I suppose the least I can do for him is put him out of his misery.”


End file.
